A selection of 2020 Czech prose, poetry, children’s and YA books, comics and non-fiction.

A selection of Czech prose published since 2000 intended for the French-speaking market. With an essay by Alena Fialová.

A selection of new Czech prose, poetry, children’s and YA books, comics and non-fiction.

A selection of 2019 Czech prose, poetry, children’s and YA books, comics and non-fiction.

A story set in Taiwan about the search for truth and one’s place in history.

A Taiwanese man called Bao strives to keep a firm hold over every aspect of his life. He has a wonderful career, children at prestigious schools, and he doesn’t even seem to be troubled by his dysfunctional relationship with his ex-wife, Sedrika. In Taiwan the main thing is not to lose face – no matter what. However, all that suddenly changes when Sedrika falls ill with an incurable disease and their son, David, decides to meet his uncle Tae, who Bao has apparently fallen out with over an inheritance. From that moment on, the layers of unspoken family grievances and lies gradually begin to peel away, fundamentally altering the lives of all those around Bao. Nothing is as it seems and nothing turns out the way the protagonists in the novel would have wanted. In the character of Bao and the story of his family, we see a reflection of the fate of a sorely tried country and ancestral traumas reaching far back into the past. The novel Black Tongues shows the fragility of our ideas about values such as truth, duty, honour and love, as well as how difficult it is to express ourselves outwardly in a genuine and honest manner.

]]> https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/cerne-jazyky-en/feed/ 0 https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/neboj-se-vratit-domu-marie-svatosova-v-rozhovoru-s-alesem-palanem-en/ https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/neboj-se-vratit-domu-marie-svatosova-v-rozhovoru-s-alesem-palanem-en/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2019 16:10:16 +0000 CzechLit https://www.czechlit.cz/book/ A dialogue between an award-winning Czech writer, journalist and the founder of hospice care about her life, spiritual journey and attitudes to... ]]>

A dialogue between an award-winning Czech writer, journalist and the founder of hospice care about her life, spiritual journey and attitudes to the terminally ill.

When most people in the Czech Republic hear the term “hospice and palliative care,” there is one name that comes to mind: Marie Svatošová, the doctor who pioneered care for the dying in this country at a time when death was a taboo subject. In his latest book of discussions with interesting personalities, the journalist and writer Aleš Palán examines milestones in the life of Marie Svatošová, the founder of the first Czech hospice. He traces her personal, spiritual and professional journey, her perception of Christianity and help in providing end-of-life care, and the values she is guided by. Aleš Palán is an excellent interviewer and Marie Svatošová replies as simply and plainly as possible. What is it like to inhabit the all-powerful white coat? Is euthanasia acceptable? How to deal with a bleak diagnosis and what meaning does it have? This book of interviews with the famous doctor includes black-and-white and colour photographs.

About the author

Aleš Palán (1965) is a novelist, journalist and author of more than forty books, half of which are interviews in book form. He has won several literary awards.

Marie Svatošová (1942) is a Czech doctor, writer and founder of the hospice movement in the Czech Republic. In 1995 she was behind the creation of the first Czech hospice in Červený Kostelec. She has helped to set up a number of other Bohemian and Moravian hospices by providing assistance and advice. She tirelessly travels around the Czech Republic lecturing and continues to promote the idea of hospices. Her books such as Až k prolití krve (Until Blood is Spilled, 2005) and Hospice a umění doprovázet (Hospices and the Art of End-of-Life Care, 2011) have become bestsellers. Marie Svatošová has been awarded several state honours.

This anthology of articles by the famous Czech journalist and friend of Franz Kafka, Milena Jesenská, has revived the legend of her life, work and character: the legend of an intelligent and courageous woman who was true to her ideals.

The preparation of this extensive anthology of journalistic pieces, written between 1919 and 1939 by the famous Czech journalist, Milena Jesenská, took its editor, the literary historian Marie Jirásková, 40 years. The anthology captures the continuity and transformation of Milena Jesenská’s opinions, attitudes and style throughout the historically tense years of the First Czechoslovak Republic and World War II. Empathy and a social conscience, unpretentiousness and simplicity were always the highest values in her eyes. As well as being an excellent analytical reporter, Milena Jesenská is also considered to be the leading founder of the Czech feminist movement, whose opinions on women’s issues are remarkably current and visionary. Jesenská’s bravery in the face of Nazism and Stalinism can be appreciated by the reader to at least the same extent as her personal life, which was of such interest to the media at the time.

With an air of experimental casualness, the protagonist works through her traumas: she doesn’t have kids, or even a long-term partner to be the father of her children. A novel that breaks down the taboo of “non-motherhood” in a not entirely predictable way.

Amálie is a Prague intellectual who is full of energy; she loves the mountains, she’s learning Japanese…and yet her life seems to have fossilized into a strange immobility. At an age when her peers are starting a family at the last minute, she is still drifting from one failed relationship to the next and – with the help of psychotherapy, getaways and psychotropic substances – trying to resolve the longstanding issues she has with her all-too-present mother and dead father. However, as she observes the world and herself through the porthole of “inert” moments, it is not without a keen sense of irony and self-reflection, which imbues this story about the end of youth, set in Prague and Japan, with an almost unbearable lightness.

]]> https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/amaliina-nehybnost-en/feed/ 0 https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/zvuky-probouzeni-en/ https://www.czechlit.cz/en/book/zvuky-probouzeni-en/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2020 16:43:17 +0000 CzechLit https://www.czechlit.cz/book/ An in-depth examination of life with a child with a severe disability from a parental, psychological and spiritual perspective. This book by... ]]>

An in-depth examination of life with a child with a severe disability from a parental, psychological and spiritual perspective.

This book by husband and wife Petr and Petra Třešňák tells the story of bringing up a daughter with autism combined with intellectual disability and severe behavioural issues. It is not so much an account of autism as the search for balance in an extremely challenging situation and coming to terms with the birth of a disabled child. Fourteen-year-old Dorotka’s parents reflect in a readable way on the inner transformation they have undergone over years of caring for her around the clock, and capture the magical moments of life with an atypical child as well as the alarming scenes of agitation and self-harm. The text, which blends the perspective of the father and the mother, alternates tales of everyday situations with psychological and spiritual reflections.

About the authors:

Petr Třešňák (1976) is a journalist working for Respekt magazine. He focuses mainly on health and social issues. Before then he worked for environmental NGOs. His article The Big Clean-up of the Homeless was awarded third prize in the European Year 2010 Journalist Award. In 2013 he was awarded the EU Health Prize for Journalists for Adventures in Ward 14, his report on psychiatric treatment. He is a two-time recipient of the Czech Journalist Prize and in 2014 he was awarded the Czech Psychiatric Association Journalist Prize for an article on children with autism. Caring for his daughter, Dorota, who suffers from a severe form of autism, led him to founding the society Děti úplňku (Children of the Full Moon) and the idea of filming the eponymous documentary film.

Petra Třešňáková is a psychotherapist; the vice-chair of an association leading the Homesharing pilot project; and she was behind the idea for the film Děti úplňku (Children of the Full Moon). She is also concerned about the quality of social services and therapy for people with ASD. She is currently involved in a pilot project for respite foster care, which links families who have children with ASD with ordinary families, offering them relief during difficult times. She specializes in individual psychotherapy, crisis intervention and counselling. She works with spiritual themes, dreams, the integration of extraordinary experiences and holistic approaches to life. She has dedicated the fifteen years of her working life to finding meaning and substance in each individual’s story.